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Greedfall: The Dying World The misadventures on the continent. I have discovered that there are timed quests by failing a side quest. No spoiler tags as it is fairly inconsequential. On the Olima markets, there was a noble berating her servant. The servant lost the noble's necklace. I quickly found it and tried several dialogue options to return it to the servant. The thing was that one of the companions was disapproving, so I decided to swap the party and return later. I got sidetracked and, when I finally got back, the noble and the servant were nowhere to be found and the quest promptly failed. There was nothing in the journal to indicate that it was a timed quest, however, the noble had mentioned going to a ball. So, while it is more immersive than the NPCs waiting for me for a few in-game months, the lack of clear time limits is unpleasant. The stealth system, on the other hand, is funny. There are several notable things. When you stealth-kill a hostile NPC and save/load, sometimes the remaining hostiles spawn at different positions, including the newly freed one. Another one is that you technically can approach from the front (~45 degrees) and, when you stealth-kill the opponent, they turn their back to you. And another one is that even with 1 point in the Stealth skill, the hostiles cannot notice you farther than a few metres away in the ~45-60 view cone in front of them. The companions, conveniently, are completely invisible. There are some continuity bugs, such as a quest NPC spawning after the related quest was completed or companions referring to the non-chosen options. It does not happen too often, but it is noticeable. When the quest resolutions are tracked correctly, it feels good, though. Other than that, I've spent most of the time trying to comb the areas for loot. I do not know whether I will ever need all those crafting ingredients or low level equipment, but if it is there, I must collect it (i.e. the game might be balanced in a way that considers the player looting everything in sight and if I do not, I will be at a disadvantage later). It is a fairly meditative experience. I am also certain that the playtime would have been halved (thirded?) if I did not do it. I think there are difficulty options, but I'd like to stick to the default one. On the other hand, it makes the story progress much slower than it could have been. There is also a new "feature" - you cannot take more than one companion quest simultaneously (the PC auto-refuses) and the companion remains in the active party until it is completed. I probably could just grab 3 people and do their quests in parallel, but I kind of understand the reasoning behind limiting it to 1.

Just began playing Black Geyser: Courier of Darkness. Definitely very old-school, which I like very much. Poor graphics and character models are obviously a weak point of the game, which may turn off some contemporary gamers. But for me, I can live with it in exchange for all the positives of an old-school cRPG. Just finished the tutorial first chapter and am now in the second chapter. More details to follow as I progress. Any thoughts from those of you who've already finished the game?

For what it's worth, Frogwares managed to get the rights to their title back from Nacon, so I hope that Spiders will recover, unlikely may it be. Eurogamer.netFrogwares now sole publisher of The Sinking City followin...Ukrainian studio Frogwares is now the sole publisher of Lovecraft-inspired detective adventure The Sinking City.

Subnautica 2 too. Having fun so far. As @Hurlshort mentioned, there is nothing wildly different about it. Also having fun with HoMaM Olden Era. The nostalgia is of the charts on this one and so far it's not losing steam.

Saw a video clip of Phill Collins, where he sat down at a drumkit, held/hit with the sticks a few times then said "that's enough." He's 75 and looks/stands like 98. Guess he's had health/surgery/nerve issues and retired long ago. Wasn't a huge Genesis/Phil fan, but loved some of their big radio hits of the time - so seeing him like that made me a little sad. Which led me to some of his live performances re: drums. Which led me to other famous drum rift/beat videos, until I reached Wipeout (The Surfari's) - now that's a classic. Some people like rock guitar solos, I like bass and drums. Anyway, dropping this here today. Still one of the best drum breaks/fills around and perfectly used/placed in the song. Song isn't bad either. Thanks for the memories, Phil.

Wake up early, feeling motivated, gonna get some stuff done! a couple hours later "What great weather, sitting lazily out here in my patio chair with my tablet is definitely a better use of my time." I need a better patio lounge chair.

A few titles I was interested in are available on Fanatical for £2.25 - 3.00 each (I probably will repurchase them on GOG if they are good). https://www.fanatical.com/en/pick-and-mix/build-your-own-fantasy-worlds-bundle

Hold up, are you saying you didnt buy any of his NFTs?

I had to post this, cutest war cat video ever 😺

I raised an eyebrow when I noticed Australia was part of Asia, where as New Zealand was part of Oceania. Aren't they part of the same regional football organisation (like UEFA for European countries)? Normally I would feel a bit sad, that Denmark isn't in the line up, but this time probably feeling a bit of relief. It saves people having to think about boycotting it or not

Yes, this I agree with you. I also don't care for DnD mechanics, for me because I find that it relies too much on random chance and does not give the player's character creation and advancement choices the centrality they deserve in how characters function. And also interestingly, my favorite DnD character has always been the dual-wielding fighter/rogue multiclass. 😀 Solasta is okay. I played and then replayed it once, and got my money's worth from it (including the expansion). But I doubt I'll want to replay it again. Hopefully, Solasta II will be significantly improved, especially in its character development and roleplaying aspects.

Oh I absolutely agree on the financial aspect, and it'll be interesting how much of the success will carry over to their future projects. I just don't find D&D, particularly in 5E guise, very compelling. This is especially true for my preferred RP class of rogue, which I now find distinctly unfun. Coincidentally I'm currently playing the final Palace of Ice expansion for Solasta. It's ...alright, though as I near the level cap the delicate balance that used to exist has finally broken. Just a standard feature of high level D&D I suppose, even with the attunement limit actually implemented.

Yeah the foundations to build upon are there, hope they do (only finished a couple contracts so far). Also made me want to replay Dishonored 2 (last time was six, seven years ago IIRC). On a slightly related note, last week also saw the release of Sir Kicksalot. Sir WHO you ask? The Adventures Of Sir Kicksalot - Trailer Puzzling how Dark Messiah's madness has never caught on. But then most devs seem again more obsessed with visual fidelity (everything must look cinema-perfect!) rather than physics and the madness that inevitably ensues. :D

Fished Act 1 of Olden Era and that seems to be all there is for EA. Maybe I'll try a scenario map while I wait for more.

Clearly you have no taste. This is IP usage is solid gold: Also all the Led Zeppelin music.

I removed Greedfall 2 from my Steam wishlist after Spiders was shut down by Nacon.

Well, this is an excellent opportunity to test how long Steam can go offline. I did not expect the developers to actually mean it, but free stuff of the free-stuff-appropriate quality is welcome. I've finished the first 2 areas as of now. The game looks and runs worse than the original, has some odd QoL gaps (the over-the-shoulder camera and the interactive items highlight*), and the companion AI is not helpful, but everything else is fine (the controls are rebindable, the saving is actually good, the story and combat are there). The 30GB of the "highres" bloat can be removed only after downloading, like it was with Steelrising, but at least it is 1 file and can be binned without breaking things. It is disappointing to see what the publisher reduced the studio to. *the last time I had to continuously hold a key to move the camera was with NWN2. Regarding the highlights, it is hard to see anything without it on due to the excessive amount of visual noise and the upscaling (still present even if the Disabled option is chosen). Like, it's the basics of visual design - the player needs to see things, and they still failed it. But the volumetric fog and ray-tracing are in and the performance (on Steam Deck) is poor (<30FPS).

I really liked how turn-based mode was improved in POE1 compared to Deadfire, so I made a mod that replicates all the main changes in Deadfire. Big thanks to the devs who made the TBM patch for POE1 - I wanted to make this mod for years but couldn't have figured out how to properly do it. 🙂 Main features: Characters no longer take one turn per round, instead they take turns as often as initiative allows. Rounds are fully redesigned - 1 round is fixed interval of 6.0 initiative, all status effects adjusted to take it into account. Same balance changes that were made for POE1 (increased lethality, adjusted gun reload speed, etc) - everything is configurable and can be adjusted if you don't like it. 0 influence on RTwP mode or other mods, should be compatible with anything and easily removable in case you don't like it/have any issues. Nexus link: https://www.nexusmods.com/pillarsofeternity2/mods/854

Finished Mixtape. Pretty good experience. Though it's less a game and more some sort of interactive story, I guess. The visuals are very nice. They kinda copied Life is Strange but made it feel like its own thing, which is great. Makes me feel nostalgic for a time that I never even experienced. It's like those 90s inspired artworks where if you have lived through the 90s, you recognize all the details, but it just wasn't like that if you get what I mean. Anyways. pretty good. Would like to have more. Best part: No super powers. Holy ****. Is that even possible? A teenage drama game without special super human abilities? Yes, yes it is. The characters are remembering things from the past, and because of that, everything is kinda dream-like and open for interpretation. IMO it's well done. Really hope there will be some more in the future.

Music for history study

In the wilds behind my place there seems to be a pack of coyotes that hang around. Every time an emergency vehicle goes past with its sirens on, the pack just starts howling those creepy noises coyotes make. It takes a while for them to settle down again. Anyway, its a beautiful day out there, apart from all the cottonwood seeds floating about. I need to find a good place to get my glasses prescription filled. It's been a while and the old place I used to go to has long since shut down. Any suggestions?

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/a-handful-of-bottlenecks-remain-for-morrowind-remake-mod-skywind-but-its-still-progressing-steadily-towards-release https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/morrowind-in-elden-ring-mod-is-now-mostly-playable-despite-the-fact-its-creators-entire-existence-has-been-consumed-with-interpreting-gibberish-code It is good to see several different fan remakes of Morrowind being worked on. Though, the ER one is much further from completion.

I am somewhere mid-game in Lost Eidolons. It is a turn-based tactical game in a fantasy setting. It is generally playable, the controls are rebindable, the saving is functional, the writing is readable (as in coherent and grammatically correct). There are some interesting systems, such as Aides (a party member who does not participate in an encounter provides passive bonuses to another who does and gains XP) and the ability to explore the camp with the over-shoulder camera. It is also possible to teleport around via the map. The combat itself is rock-paper-scissors, with what beats what being shown in the lower right corner at all times. There are also some terrain effects and magical status effects which can work together. Now, there are a few issues that annoy me. The most noticeable one is that the character models look generic (and the characters of the same class look almost identical) and the general palette is the grey-brown of the 00's shooters. On the lower resolutions, it is quite hard to see the UI icons, while most portraits, as mentioned, are too similar to tell apart. There is an incredible amount of small talk and fetch quests with little to no player's input. Even with the in-camp teleportation and skipping, it still takes a lot of time. The character development system is functional - gain enough XP in the relevant skills and the class will unlock, the problem is that the high-tier classes and skills are locked behind the main story, so I've had the party maxed out for the last 5 or so chapters (I am at 14 of 27). As a character cannot carry an arsenal or switch between armour suits in combat, I do not understand why I would want my Barbarian-to-become to learn throwing fireballs. The story itself is generally decent (a mercenary company accidentally offs a local lord and decides to join the rebels to avoid persecution by the Empire) and the MC is a generic Chaotic Good MC with a few points in CHA. Despite the opening mission spoiling the main antagonist, it is interesting to see how it gets to that point. In terms of performance, I have not noticed FPS drops or crashes, but the game occasionally runs hot. I've had one hardlock when I tried to skip an enemy turn. Probably, I would have had a better experience if I did not play right after Symphony of War (better visual style, more complexity and variety), but I also would not have played now if I had not played SoW.

I also played a smuggler at release and did get to 50, but it was absolutely wild how they were absolutely set on making a melee spec for the smuggler, and so achieved that by forcing them to use a gun that only works at melee range. Yeah... To be fair, I have no idea how much of the concept of a melee gun was made up by the SWTOR team and how much is actual Star Wars lore. For what it's worth, I only ever got two classes to 50 because it took so incredibly long back then. One was the smuggler, solo, and the other was a consular in a co-op run. I think I got an inquisitor to around 30-40 some time later but ran out of momentum (and double XP weekends).

Instead of correcting this little typo my mind immediately imagined a lance with an AoE effect that arranges the enemies in a specific order... 🥴

Both. You can start with Deadfire, it's not mandatory to play Pillars of Eternity first. But it is better to start with the first one - because Deadfire is a continuation of your main character's story that begins in Pillars of Eternity.

I looked it up again, and I don't see anything that's changed very much. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm Steam client has a wrapper dev's can use. They do not claim it is anti-piracy, and recognize it's more of a simple anti-freely-share with dozens of your friends, that can be easily circumvented. Steam recommends using other/3rd party drm on top of their wrapper, or "enhancing" legit copies with steam features that only work with legit Steam-purchased, to make having a legit copy more desirable, like achievements, trading cards, Steam's sever online-MP, etc. I'm pretty sure everything else is 3rd party, eg the current AA/AAA dev-popular Denuvo. The main ez-short test, last I knew, is to rename steam folder and the steam.exe and try to run games via the game exe to see if it'll run if game thinks Steam isn't there. There are many user-sourced sites/lists re: steam-drm free titles, whether they were initially or maybe removed later - but most of these fall into the moderate to very old, certain indies/devs, or somewhat obscure titles category.

Still one of the all time great female vocalists

CD - 150ish hours now. I probably have another 200 hours + to go! At least according to the posts from people who play for 8+ hrs a day claiming 350-450 hrs to do "everything"/near 100% it (I have zero intention of 100%). I only play an average of 2.5-3 hrs per day so I still have a few months of content. Perhaps. eg, it's been "worth the money" for me, at least. I still wouldn't "recommend" the game outright to anyone tho, because of the "it takes this many hours to get-good" or click, if it ever clicks with one at all, factor. Maybe that's ok for online-only/MMO's, but eh. It really is a sandbox more than anything else. Anyway, probably going to stop yapping about it now. Finally got a little more ahead in the MQ - which technically does get a tad (tad) more comprehensible as time goes on, but it's still not good or cohesive/immersive, even from my "don't care about story" perspective. There is apparently book-lore in the game you can get/read post-game that explains tons of story stuff, like why Kliff is so silent/blank, why the heck the sky-Abyss exists, who these beings are that keep yanking Kliff around, etc. Sounds like the intended background is more interesting than what was put/shown in gameplay. But between this sandbox and maybe one day Death Stranding 2, I may not need another "big"-new game until I build a new rig in 2-3 years. :P

I thought these memes and roasts were funny, but probably too politically biased to be considered just humour

War plans in D4 LoH seem incomplete. I need JIRA and a end of list retrospective with Tyrael.

New Lithium-Plasma Engine Passes Key Mars Propulsion Test

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. Seems like a very solid, if budget HoM&M installment. I enjoyed the demo they released a while back, and this already feels stronger. Only spent a bit time in a custom match, and I am a very casual HoM&M player - very little multiplayer experience. Still, I really like it so far, especially for £25. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

a few partial/incomplete louise brooks film were found, restored, and released on blu-ray recently it's like they know i exist

The Russians shipped oil to Cuba without the intervention of the US military. Remember? Sanctioned Russian tanker docks in Cuba after US allows passage despite energy blockade But yes, it's borderline behavior that should be reviewed by Congress. My particular concern is the use of military strikes against unarmed fishing vessels, which seems a pretty clear-cut human rights violation if not a violation of international law. Yes, Congress should be concerned about that, but the Republicans are too cowed by this administration.

I have completed the main quest of AC Valhalla and it took me about 190 hours I finished the main quest where you end up in the machine with Siguard but I was still having fun so I decided to complete the last few quests like killing all the Order and the Asgard quests The Order assassinations were all easy to find, I had most of the clues and it was just about finding the last few. And the Asgard quest was different and entertaining with all the ties to Norse Mythology like fighting Fenrir and the Jotun magic And then the game ends after you find the last memory shards I found some interesting stats on Steam around overall completion of this game 6.6 % of players killed the entire Order 5% of players got the settlement to level 6 6.4 % of players finished the Jotun quests So the majority of people never finished this game. I was a little surprised by these low overall numbers? But great AC game overall, its gets a solid 68/100 on the globally respected "BruceVC game rating system " Its your quintessential AC type design and mechanics but you cant play these types of games all the time but they definitely fun every now and then Really good value for money

I have finished the Symphony of War DLC missions. There was quite a decent variety of missions and new units - the ones accessible earlier were noticeably easier while the later ones provided a decent challenge. The new units generally enhanced the performance of the existing squads, as I did not want to create a full necromancer squad and could not find enough War Cats. I guess, the main appeal of the DLC would be the NG+ mode. While it does not allow to carry over everything (the units are possible to repurchase for the new currency, Memory Crystals, but they start from level 1), it allows to customise the experience further than the base difficulty options. In terms of story, it provided some interesting lore, but it did not anyhow affect the main game or the ending. I have also found a guide which explained what I suspected - same units attack the same row, so having mixed squads is preferable to the single-type ones.

Unemployment benefits are a little more nuanced than that. From Google (its a little out of date but): "Long-Term Unemployed Rise: By August 2025, the number of people unemployed for 27 weeks or longer—those most likely to exhaust state benefits—surged, with more than one in four (25.7%) unemployed Americans out of work for over half a year." So people will eventually drop off the books.

Yes I could, that is correct, but to me it is kind of hassle to do it. And it will become more of a hassle, as the time goes on, as I still prefer playing on my PS4 and PS3 consoles. And I am still buying once in a while new games for them. But yes, that is an issue which I could solve if I had mood and time for that. But, as we all have experienced last few years, it looks like that the world is slowly burning down, and being dependent on outside source to be able to access what I have purchased during another man made crisis, is IMHO not the smartest thing to do. For now it is still OK, but imagine, if people beyond the big pond will elect another MAGA muppet into the office in 2028, and the relationship between the USA and EU deteriorate even more. In worst case economic scenario, this could mean, that for US companies it would be extremely problematic to provide their services in EU. And all of the biggest players in providing these services, are based in USA, including SONY. In such a scenario it would be much more problematic to adhere to 30 day activation period. That being said, the chance of all of that gloom and doom happening is pretty slim (at least for now), but this risk is currently much higher than 15-20 years ago, when Valve, Sony and MS went full steam ahead on transition to "fully digital future."

I have yet to mini-game fish in CD. I simply swim around and catch by hand. It works so why not. Every medieval/fantasy game needs the hangin' tree, right? There are 7 trillion "jigsaw puzzle" scenes in this game. Still like his hair. And the cat. Especially the cat. (they've also added birds as tameable pets now, heh).

My consoles were not connected online for last three months 🤷‍♂️ And my PC for month and half 🤷‍♂️ The issue is, that in the last 15 years, I was more often online than Playstation services 😄

Minnesota and Denver sure have played each other a lot in the playoffs the past few years While Minnesota has won 2 of the 3 series, the one series Denver won they went on to win it all, so...

Forgot - I tried swapping the DLSS 4+ .dll in CD with a DLSS 3.5 .dll. No clue why, but it seems to work better for me. Less pixelated image noise (foilage/grass, shadow/light noise, no more ghosting, and increased FPS by maybe 10fps. Image is maybe a tad softer but I increased sharpness on my monitor a small amount and it's fine. It's not perfect but it's better than default game DLSS. Maybe older nvida gpu's don't like 4+, or DLSS 4 sucks, or the fact I only install nvidia driver (no nvidia app with all the new ABCD options etc) affects something - who knows.

Crimson Desert - still playing my version 1.02.00 --every play session I go "Most current Faction quests done, time to do another MQ section, if I get to early Chapt. 11 I can probably ignore the MQ forever (for me) then!" Then 5 minutes after loading save, I'm distracted by something (I need to get more poison/ore/whatever) and go running off into the wilderness for 2.5 hrs. My "knowledge" entries are now around 1400 and I'd guess 65% of map exposed. --Kliff has this one, er, spell, called nature's snare. I just love this thing, the visual and animation of it. It's not actually really useful/needed most of the time, outside of certain boss types, but man I love using it. I so wish the game had had more "magic", even just a little more. Mostly it's socket-gems to give your weapons PoE-like ranged attacks. Effective, but I wanna Mage a bit here and there, not spam-fire lighting or mystical orbs or crows out of my sword. And I still keep kinda wanting to create a new start save folder, mostly to create a "perfect" Chapt 4-5 save as a starting point if I ever want to replay whole thing again, that sort of thing. Of course, it's unclear (or somewhat dubious) that I'd replay this game, so then I think it'd be a waste of tedious time. But my brain still wants to. And I still have a serious love/hate for the game. I'd say it does "get better" - if the sandbox aspects appeal to you - but man still so much to aggravate at the same time. yet I keep turning it on. :D :D

In Denmark we call them "Socialdemocrats". I.e. the workers party. At some point they went screw it, this is what people wants, this is what we give the people. Effectively stealing a lot of the thunder from far right parties, who normally campaign on that single subject. We do have some of the most immigrant unfriendly policies in Europe though. How Denmark's left (not the far right) got tough on immigration Denmark’s hardline immigration laws have caught Britain’s eye. Here’s why | CNN Denmark’s Approach to Immigration and the Debate on EU’s Asylum and Migration Policy | Northern Europe | bpb.de Will Denmark's hardline migration policy influence rest of EU? Tl;dr; You are not welcome and don't expect to remain here.

Just a suggestion or wish I know it may defeat the purpose of thirst drain in woozy or heavy drain areas but could we possibly get a Juicy Drop trinket from juice that gives thirst like the Hogstopper one for hunger. I think it would be great for like an emergency source or if your just hanging around somewhere trying to explore without worrying about thirst drain.

Thanks!

Finished BG3 and started on Civ 5. Still my favorite Civ game. Need a break from cRPGs after hundreds of hours slogging through BG3. 😛

Vampire Crawlers. It's not as good Vampire Survivors, but it's fun enough. Only played about 4 hours, so maybe it'll turn as ridiculous as Survivors does when you get far enough, dunno. Basically, Survivors is fun because it doesn't take too much thinking so you can play it while doing something else, or when you want to zone out. Crawlers takes a bit more thinking (only very slightly bit more), while being similarly simple, so it doesn't really fill the same niche in my gameplaying needs as Survivor does.